The Art of Making a Nixie Tube [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: The Art of Making a Nixie Tube [video]

#21

Post by rzzzt » Sun, Oct 02, 2016, 11:33 PM UTC

grkvlt wrote: post #18

rzzzt wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that why the getter is added?

What is a 'getter' though? And what does it actually do ? EDIT - Wikipedia [1] says it's a strip of (barium?) metal that is evaporated to react with any remaining gas/moisture particles in the tube and deposit them on the surface safely. It causes the shiny metallic film seen at the top of some tubes, I think? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getter

You are right, another article touches on this topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_tube#Vacuum

Re: The Art of Making a Nixie Tube [video]

#22

Post by teh_klev » Sun, Oct 02, 2016, 11:35 PM UTC

Previous discussion from around a month ago about Dalibor Farny building out his workshop etc:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12308974

http://www.daliborfarny.com/#about-me (you might need to scroll down to the "About Me" section).

Re: The Art of Making a Nixie Tube [video]

#23

Post by fake-name » Sun, Oct 02, 2016, 11:45 PM UTC

jbuzbee wrote: post #19

I'm really, really impressed with the amount of work that goes into making these tubes and can understand why he's selling them for around $150, but what I don't get is how he can compete with the nixie tubes that go for under $10 on eBay. Are his better or more reliable?

Primarily size. The $10 ebay nixies are tiny.

If you can find 2-3" digit size nixie tubes on ebay for a substantially better rate then these, I'd be very, very surprised.

Re: The Art of Making a Nixie Tube [video]

#24

Post by fake-name » Sun, Oct 02, 2016, 11:47 PM UTC

GirlsCanCode wrote: post #12

Animats wrote: post #11

Artisanal vacuum tubes are a thing.[1] There's some interest in this from the vinyl record and overpriced tube amp crowd. There are even people who rebuild old CRTs for early TVs.[2] It's a lot of work. [1] http://hackaday.com/2014/11/21/artisanal-vacuum-tubes-hackad... [2] http://www.earlytelevision.org/crt_rebuild.html

There's no vacuum in a Nixie Tube! That being said, it would be nice if classic tubes of yesteryear can be remade efficiently. Especially for antique radio enthusiasts.

Uh, what?

Production involves pumping down to high vacuum, heating to degas, and then refilling with neon/argon at low pressure. Granted the production tube isn't at high vacuum, but it's not equivalent to ambient.

Re: The Art of Making a Nixie Tube [video]

#25

Post by analognoise » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 12:14 AM UTC

cyberferret wrote: post #17

analognoise wrote: post #2

I wish there was a parts list for this! One of the problems that took so much effort in tube lifetimes were the coatings used. I'm wondering what types of coatings he's using. Need more info!

I'd be interested to learn more too. Old methods of tube production produced a lot of waste like Mercury and other toxic (carcinogenic) byproducts. I believe modern production methods (where they still exist) are better, and I bet this subject would make an interesting video/read in its own right.

We should connect and try to figure this out - there must be more of us; maybe even dozens!

Re: The Art of Making a Nixie Tube [video]

#26

Post by hatsunearu » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 12:25 AM UTC

fake-name wrote: post #23

jbuzbee wrote: post #19

I'm really, really impressed with the amount of work that goes into making these tubes and can understand why he's selling them for around $150, but what I don't get is how he can compete with the nixie tubes that go for under $10 on eBay. Are his better or more reliable?

Primarily size. The $10 ebay nixies are tiny . If you can find 2-3" digit size nixie tubes on ebay for a substantially better rate then these, I'd be very, very surprised.

Yeah the IN-18 which I think is the big kind goes for like 180 bucks each.

These ones are 145 and they are stupidly (in a good way) humongous. I want to try building with these, if I'm honest, wow.

Re: The Art of Making a Nixie Tube [video]

#27

Post by ams6110 » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 12:56 AM UTC

Glassblowing is a disappearing trade itself. I'm not sure what university chemistry departments are doing these days, an in-house glass shop with one if not several skilled glassblowers used to be pretty common. Likely it's cheaper now to have this outsourced.

Re: The Art of Making a Nixie Tube [video]

#28

Post by makomk » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 12:58 AM UTC

GirlsCanCode wrote: post #12

Animats wrote: post #11

Artisanal vacuum tubes are a thing.[1] There's some interest in this from the vinyl record and overpriced tube amp crowd. There are even people who rebuild old CRTs for early TVs.[2] It's a lot of work. [1] http://hackaday.com/2014/11/21/artisanal-vacuum-tubes-hackad... [2] http://www.earlytelevision.org/crt_rebuild.html

There's no vacuum in a Nixie Tube! That being said, it would be nice if classic tubes of yesteryear can be remade efficiently. Especially for antique radio enthusiasts.

No theoretical reason why r couldn't be done, I think the more common guitar amp tubes are even in commercial production in China (and supposedly they've improved the robustness too). Bit of a niche market though.

glasslinger on YouTube has been experimenting with making some of the more unusual tubes too: https://youtu.be/BXAjspPLzRQ

Re: The Art of Making a Nixie Tube [video]

#29

Post by hatsunearu » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 1:10 AM UTC

cornholio wrote: post #8

Number 6 is dead on the top left tube in the observation rack.

Heh, that's a nice touch on the video if that was intentional.

Re: The Art of Making a Nixie Tube [video]

#30

Post by setori88 » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 1:51 AM UTC

rzzzt wrote: post #16

setori88 wrote: post #15

That induction heating step is critical. Ensure you heat metal whilst the vacuum system is still pumping otherwise if you heat the metal after the tube is sealed the metal will out gas giving you bad vacuum, completely destroying your Nixie tube. It's a pleasure to see such refined work, many many frustrating mistakes were made to reach this level of refinement.

Isn't that why the getter is added?

That getter is fascinating, it's a new concept to me. Recently we blew a picoammeter because we fired up a vacuum guage in UHV after disconnection from the roughing pump. The vacuum guage out gassed massively giving us shit vacuum, this then fried the picoammeter and left us scratching our heads for a few hours. Firing the vacuum guage while still connected to the roughing pump would have solved this problem. Thanks for sharing the getter information.